I'm working on a project for my marketing class in which we have to select our dream job, research the company or organization its for, identify a problem with said company or organization, and call them presenting ourselves as a solution to their problem. My company of choice was Jackson Guitars, the makers of my DKMGT. I figured this sight might be one of the best places to research them. I have a few questions for anyone with experience with Jackson guitars or knowledge of the company, and not all of them are directly related to guitar playing. Some of them I already know the answer to, but am looking to other points of view. First, what is your overall impression with their guitars? How do they compare to their competitor's in value (quality in terms of price)? Who is their primary customer base? Who are their competitors? How are their guitars selling right now? How are their competitors' guitars selling right now? How many Jacksons do you see among people you know who play guitar? What about among metal players alone? Are there any overall flaws with their guitars? How is their customer service? Finally, can you direct me to some webpage(s) that gives detailed info about Jackson as a company and not just about their guitars (I already checked their official site and wikipedia so anything besides that). Thanks for reading this and any help is appreciated.

Well, they're owned by Fender these days and I read an article a while back about how and why Fender is failing. What it came down to is there's not much reason to buy a new Fender because there are so many perfectly good old Fenders on the market. They are their own biggest competitor basically.

I like Jackson guitars. They're really badass looking and my buddy's got a 90's import that is totally killer. I don't have one. I'd like to one day, but it would not be a new one and probably wouldn't be a Fender era axe either.

I'm sure somebody else here knows a whole lot more about it than I do.

What is there for him to gain from directing him to read Ed Roman's effusive drivel? The guy is a jingoistic, racist and bigoted slob with a vested interest a mile wide smeared across practically every word on his website.

First, what is your overall impression with their guitars?
Their low-end guitars suck ass. I had a JS30 Warrior that totally blew, but the higher end ones ****ing rock. Currently using a Jackson RR24 as my main guitar in Eb.

How do they compare to their competitor's in value (quality in terms of price)?
With low-end guitars, Ibanez shmacks them. But the midrange is very affordable and play well.

Who is their primary customer base?
I'd go out on a limb and say metal and hard rock plays

Who are their competitors?
I'd say their biggest rivals are Ibanez and ESP/LTD

How are their guitars selling right now?
Beats me

How are their competitors' guitars selling right now?
See above

How many Jacksons do you see among people you know who play guitar?
I know quite a few metal guitarists that play Jacksons. I don't know ANY non-metal/hard rock guys that use Jackson though. I see more Ibanez and Fender though, but Jackson IS owned by Fender now.

What about among metal players alone?
Pretty much the only people I know that play Jacksons.

Are there any overall flaws with their guitars?
I don't like the painted neck on my RR24, but that's my only complaint. Really shitty pickups in the low-end guitars as well.

Well I'd say it's an interesting time at Jackson now with the transition from the Japanese-built mid range to their new models.

It's like there's been three phases of mid range Jackson model. The first, the Professional Series of the early 90's, built at Chushin Gakki in Japan, great features fantastic guitars. Then they were discontinued, probably because they were so good that they were cutting into USA sales.

Then the Pros were relaunched, still built at Chushin Gakki, but with the features hugely cut back. You still knew you were getting a guitar that played like a Jackson and sounded great - but that probably came with a rosewood fretboard with plastic inlays rather than ebony and MOP, it came with a Jackson Licensed Floyd instead of an OFR and so on.

And now that Chushin Gakki has shut down, they're relaunching the pro series, some of them built in Indonesia and others in the FMIC factory in Mexico, but with better spec sheets than previously. I think how people react to the changes says a lot about them as Jackson fans.

Because really, they've fallen behind some of the competing companies in recent years. Jackson probably (out of the metal brands) have a higher proportion of fans who grew up in the 80's coveting the Jacksons that they saw their favourite players using, but these days they haven't done much to attract new fans. Companies like ESP and Ibanez have been offering guitars with more features for similar prices, with a huge list of popular artists using them to boot. Jackson's old fans would scoff and point out yet again that the Japanese build was better, but it wasn't attracting the teenagers.

Now their new models can compete more on spec, but while remaining recognisably Jackson, so I think they're a great step. I'm mainly pleased that they haven't resorted to blingy binding like so many of their competitiors, and frankly I'm surprised that they made that mistake with the recent Charvel Desolation series. So long as the new models have good, consistent quality control I think they could really boost sales.

Moving out of the mid range, I think the USA range has been stagnant for a while. They're all the classic Jackson shapes, but if anything the only changes that they've been making have been to cut down on the number of finish options available. My thought - which would never happen - would be to run some sort of semi-custom system. So many people who order a USA Jackson through a dealer have to wait for months because the dealer places the order with Jackson and has to wait for the guitar to be built. So if you're having to wait for the guitar to be built anyway why not offer a limited range of options? Regular/reverse headstock, fretboard wood, pickup choice, etc. Just a few things, but how often does a guitarist love a model but just wish that it had feature X? You could still have the standard models for store stock, but have the semi-custom options for orders with just a small upcharge rather than a full custom price. Again, it would never happen but I think it'd be a great way to inject a bit of life back into the USA line.

So I suppose to answer some of your questions out of all that, the most interesting ones anyway -

I'd say that Jackson's customer base is probably on average older than that of their main competitors like ESP, Ibanez and Schecter. Because those companies have done a better job of attracting new guitarists and Jackson has a large number of fans still from their early days. I'm not saying that all Jackson fans are loyal from the 80's (I only fell in love with them myself around '07) but that there's a bit of skewing there.

Flaws in the guitars? Well for the mid range we'll have to wait and see what the overhaul brings. Before that I'd say the main flaw wasn't on the guitars themselves, it was that they were letting their competitors give the customer more features for their money.

And on the customer service point, mostly the only part of that that matters to the fans is their website and announcement of new stuff and that's always been pretty shoddy really. There's been some improvement recently with the announcement of the new X and Pro series, but before that, well, I'm annoyed at how bad it was considering how little effort it would take. For example, when the old pro series was discontinued a lot of fans only found out because Jackson took the models down off their website. No announcement, nothing. That's just a bit rubbish really. But as I said, things seem to be improving and I hope they continue to do so.

First, what is your overall impression with their guitars?
Their low-end guitars suck ass. I had a JS30 Warrior that totally blew, but the higher end ones ****ing rock. Currently using a Jackson RR24 as my main guitar in Eb.

How do they compare to their competitor's in value (quality in terms of price)?
With low-end guitars, Ibanez shmacks them. But the midrange is very affordable and play well.

Who is their primary customer base?
I'd go out on a limb and say metal and hard rock plays

Who are their competitors?
I'd say their biggest rivals are Ibanez and ESP/LTD

How are their guitars selling right now?
Beats me

How are their competitors' guitars selling right now?
See above

How many Jacksons do you see among people you know who play guitar? I know quite a few metal guitarists that play Jacksons. I don't know ANY non-metal/hard rock guys that use Jackson though. I see more Ibanez and Fender though, but Jackson IS owned by Fender now.

What about among metal players alone?
Pretty much the only people I know that play Jacksons.

Are there any overall flaws with their guitars?
I don't like the painted neck on my RR24, but that's my only complaint. Really shitty pickups in the low-end guitars as well.

How is their customer service?
Never dealt with 'em.

Hope this helped!

Doesn't phil collen from def leppard have a signature model?They're not the heaviest, but the again i never really listened to them....

in brief. i owned two mid-high models. one wasa DKMG the other a DKMGT, they were nice guitars, but they don't hold a candle to the ibanez's i have (Prestige 3350MZ and 2570EVSL). the ibanezes are a little more expensive, but the used prices are somewhat similar if you are patient. out with the jacksons in with the ibanezes. however i would take a MIJ jackson over an LTD any day. higher end jacksons (soloist for example) IMO are better than comparable ESP's.

i would never buy another unless it was MIJ either new if they would build in there again, or used.

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Originally Posted by T00DEEPBLUE

...We already knew from the rest of the sentence that you really don't know what you're talking about.